Brickhouse Security is a New York-based company that offers GPS fleet tracking services. Founded in 2005, the company offers various security and tracking solutions. A trusted brand in the US, Brickhouse Security offers services to over 80% of Fortune 500 companies, along with 2,500+ government agencies. Furthermore, the firm also boasts over 40,000 companies globally as its clients.
Brickhouse Security sells a wide variety of tracking hardware including GPS trackers, surveillance cameras and other security systems. These products are plug-and-play vehicle tracking devices, as well as advanced hardware and software solutions tailored to specific business requirements.
(Image credit: Brickhouse Security)
Brickhouse Security: Pricing
Brickhouse Security offers a diverse range of hardware options with pricing starting at $29.99 for the Livewire Dash GPS Vehicle Tracker. This tracker provides updates every 60 seconds and offers access to highly detailed reports on your fleet's travel history. Unfortunately, it does not list specific monthly pricing tiers on its website.
However, Brickhouse offers a free demo for companies to test out its services and products. Their products also come with free, unlimited lifetime technical support and a 30-day money-back guarantee.
(Image credit: Brickhouse Security)
Brickhouse Security: Features
Brickhouse Security offers smart GPS fleet tracking services equipped with features that will likely meet the requirements of most businesses. These solutions not only efficiently track and manage assets on the move, but also help clients optimize their workforce, fleet, and enhance cost efficiency.
Brickhouse Security’s solution aims to help clients with:
Reducing the number of traffic and compliance violations
Reducing fuel expenses by managing routes efficiently
Efficiently handling dispatch and scheduling
Improving the vehicle’s lifespan
Ensuring driver safety
Providing driver training on better driving habits
The company offers a wide variety of customizable reports, such as efficiency reports, vehicle maintenance reports, safety reports, and driver scorecards. These reports can significantly help key decision-makers in optimizing fleet operations.
Brickhouse Security offers a cloud-based solution that can be accessed from anywhere using any device. The solution is accessible via the web, which hosts two different platforms. TrackView is applicable for clients who joined before October 2019, and customers who signed up after October can log in to the newer LocateGPS dashboard. The company also offers a mobile app for Android and iOS.
The company offers both hardwired as well as battery-powered GPS trackers, all dependent on 4G for connectivity.
(Image credit: Brickhouse Security)
The key features of Brickhouse Security are:
Real-time tracking: Real-time tracking allows operators to stay in control of the fleet, ensure drivers adhere to their assigned routes, and assist them in case of any issues. It also keeps them informed about the ETA, traffic status, and delays, and allows them to efficiently dispatch the nearest vehicle to the job site.
Reducing costs: Efficiently managing your fleet results in reduced fuel costs, leading to an overall reduction in expenses. Features like geofencing ensure that drivers follow their designated route, and detailed reports like idling reports help identify where fuel is being wasted. Optimizing routes also helps as drivers often have a favored route which may not always be the most fuel-efficient.
ELD compliance: Brickhouse Security offers an ELD compliant tracking solution that helps reduce penalties during roadside inspections. By electronically recording drivers' Hours of Service (HoS), vehicle log errors, and more, the solution reduces paperwork and improves compliance.
Variety of tracking hardware: Brickhouse Security provides a diverse range of tracking solutions, including hardwired options for compliance requirements, plug-and-play devices, and battery-operated trackers. This allows companies to optimize hardware costs and choose the appropriate tracker based on the specific needs of each vehicle.
Geo-fencing: While a basic feature with all GPS tracking solutions, Brickhouse Security allows you to create a geo-fence for every asset. Every time an asset enters or exits the designated area, the system alerts the operators instantly.
Technical support: Brickhouse Security offers free and lifetime technical support for all the hardware it sells. Unfortunately, Brickhouse Security doesn’t specify if the support is available on-site as well.
(Image credit: Brickhouse Security)
Brickhouse Security: Customer Support
Brickhouse Security’s support team can be reached via a direct call, chat, email or SMS. The company has a toll-free number for calls and texts in the US, plus an international helpline. There is a live chat option as well, and both the call center and live chat team are available between 10am to 7pm on weekdays.
Additionally, the website hosts a comprehensive Knowledge Base for troubleshooting common problems. While Brickhouse's social media accounts are not very active, its YouTube channel is occasionally updated.
Brickhouse Security: Final verdict
Brickhouse Security has an impressive line-up of customers, including many major businesses. It offers a plethora of hardware devices that come with free and lifetime technical support. Unfortunately, it does not prioritize marketing and releasing new content for its social media platforms.
Despite being accredited by the Better Business Bureau, Brickhouse Security lacks substantial reviews on the Bureau's platform, which may pose challenges for consumers seeking user-based feedback before making a purchase. However, it's noteworthy that it has a commendably low number of complaints, an incredible feat for a company as old and as big as Brickhouse Security.
Sign up with a regular VPN and you'll probably expect access to a carefully managed network of high-powered dedicated servers, while support for the very latest encryption and protocols blocks all unauthorized access to your traffic.
Hola isn't like that at all.
The Israeli company describes its offering as a "community powered (Peer-to-Peer) VPN". You'll get to choose a destination country from a list of 41 options, but Hola routes your traffic through other Hola user's computers, rather than its own network.
The service is much more basic than other VPNs – there is no P2P support, no dedicated IPs, no port forwarding – but there are some possible benefits, especially if you're looking to unblock Netflix or other sites or platforms.
Conventional VPNs often struggle with unblocking, exactly because they route their traffic through relatively few servers. Having large numbers of users with the same data center IP addresses makes them easy to detect and block.
But with Hola, your traffic could be routed through any of thousands of ordinary devices in ordinary homes. From the website's point of view, your browsing looks no different to its other visitors, which means you're far less likely to get annoying "unavailable in your region"-type warnings.
One obvious concern here is that although you get to use the bandwidth of other Hola nodes, they can also use yours. This isn't just regular internet users looking to stream TV shows in other countries. Hola also makes money by selling some of your bandwidth to businesses, as a reliable way to access web data from around the world.
Plenty of people don't like this idea on principle. The approach has created some very bad Hola-related headlines in the past, and left the company with a horrible reputation for privacy.
From a practical point of view, though, Hola shouldn't have much impact on your system. The company points out that it only routes traffic through devices if they're completely idle and not running on battery power, and even then, Hola doesn't use more than 3MB data on mobile devices, 100MB on desktops.
There’s still scope for problems. If your system becomes the exit node for another Hola user who's hacking, sending spam or downloading something illegal, for instance, your IP address may be recorded as the offender.
Fortunately, if you like the concept of Hola, there's a simple way to avoid the risk: switch from a free plan to a paid option and you won't have to share bandwidth.
Hola collects quite a bit of data about its users online activity (Image credit: Hola)
Pricing
Hola is available in a free plan, but this has many issues. It allows others to use your bandwidth, displays regular popups while you're connected, and limits the usage you can make of the service each day.
Uncomfortable with that? Then we'd really recommend you sign up with a real VPN, but if for some reason you're keen on Hola, you can also upgrade to Hola Premium.
The service supports Windows, Mac, iOS and some Android devices, and can be set up to run on routers, gaming consoles, smart TVs and more. Hola Premium allows you to connect up to 10 of these devices simultaneously, and as you're a paying customer, no one else will be able to use your bandwidth.
Prices start high at $14.99 billed monthly, or an equivalent $7.69 on the annual plan. You could sign up with ExpressVPN, a vastly superior service which actually will protect your privacy, for a very similar price ($12.95 monthly, $8.32 on the annual plan.)
Hola's pricing is designed to push you to the three-year plan, though, which is far cheaper at $2.99 a month. That's good value, but again, you can get far better VPNs for much less.
The excellent Private Internet Access gives you three years plus three free months for $2.03 a month, for example. That translates to 39 months of coverage for $79, while Hola offers 36 months for $107.55.
The Hola Ultra plan allows connecting up to 20 devices, and adds support for Smart DNS and 4K streaming. Sounds reasonable, at least until you see the very high prices: $29.99 billed monthly, $19.99 on the annual plan, $7.99 over three years. Private Internet supports unlimited devices, also has smart DNS and should have no difficulty with 4K streaming, all from barely a quarter of the price.
If you do decide to sign up, Hola's payment options include credit card, PayPal, Google Pay and more.
Hola has a money-back guarantee, but beware, this only applies if you've never made a single Hola Premium connection, and you make your claim within 14 days of purchase. Most VPNs allow you to use the service as much as you like for a full 30 days to decide if the service is right for you.
Privacy and logging
In theory, signing up with a VPN can be a great way to shield your browsing from snoopers.
In practice, there's a problem. Sure, using a VPN prevents your ISP from tracking what you're doing, but it also gives your provider a perfect chance to do the same. That's why it's important to check that your chosen VPN doesn't log any of your online activities.
We took a look at Hola's Privacy Policy, and quickly realized this is as far away from a 'no log' VPN as it's possible to get.
When you use the service, for example, the policy says Hola might log your IP address, operating system, browser type, the web pages you visit, when you arrive, and how much time you spend on each one.
If this is a mobile device, Hola also makes a careful note of all your installed apps.
Hola says it doesn't 'rent or sell any Personal Information', but that's not as reassuring as it sounds. The company also says it may share Personal Information with 'subsidiaries' and 'affiliated companies.' Even if Hola doesn't rent or sell your data, that doesn't tell you what these other companies might be doing with it.
There's another potential catch. In data protection terms, "Personal Information" refers to items that identify an individual, so Hola is telling us that it won't sell user contact details. Your browsing history isn’t necessarily 'Personal Information', though, and there's nothing here that says Hola can't sell it, or "share" it with an "affiliated company" for some other purpose.
It gets worse (no, really.) Hola says it may also share your Personal Information and other data to comply with legal requests or to detect fraud or violations of its policies. So not only might the company hand your browsing history over if the authorities ask, but it also reserves the right to analyze it for potential 'violations.'
Still in any doubt? Compare the Chrome Store 'Privacy practices' page for NordVPN and Hola. The NordVPN page says it will not collect or use your data. Hola's says it collects personally identifiable information, financial and payment information, authentication information, personal communications, location, web history, and user activity.
Put it all together, and if you care at all about privacy, Hola is clearly not the service for you. Check out the best free VPNs for far more trustworthy providers who'll genuinely protect your privacy rather than compromise it.
Hola provides its users with a custom version of the Chromium browser (Image credit: Hola)
Security
Hola protects your web traffic using the IKEV2 protocol by default, and the Hola site says apps can also fall back to the older PPTP/L2TP protocols if IKEv2 won't connect.
This gets you AES-256 encryption with relatively basic SHA1 integrity checks. Hola's Windows app allowed us to customize encryption settings, so you can switch to SHA256 or SHA384, for instance. But the app also offers some very poor choices, including MD5 hashing and DES3 encryption, a near 50-year-old protocol which is so vulnerable to attack that NIST says it should no longer be used. (You don't have to select these, but there's always a chance someone might do so by accident, and we're struggling to see why they're on the list at all.)
Although Hola's default encryption settings are enough to, say, shield your web traffic on public Wi-Fi, they can't match the security you'll get with the top VPN competitions. Most providers use leading edge protocols such as OpenVPN or WireGuard, for instance. PPTP and L2TP are so insecure that the bulk of the industry dropped them long, long ago, and although IKEv2 isn't a bad option, it's also on the way out. (NordVPN began removing IKEv2 support in June 2023, for instance, as it doesn't offer the best security.)
Hola apps
Hola has apps for Windows, Mac, and iOS devices, but the Android situation is more uncertain. Hola has apps available on the Samsung Galaxy and Huawei stores, but not Google Play.
Confusingly, we noticed a 'Hola VPN Proxy Unblocker' app on Google Play, which uses an old Hola logo to add a little more legitimacy, but has nothing to do with the real Hola company. We would expect Hola to make more of an effort to detect bogus apps trying to cash in on its name, but in the meantime, download apps directly from the setup links on Hola's website, and if you're using Android, install the Chrome extension instead.
Hola's mobile and desktop apps (stripped-down versions of Chromium) have a plain but very familiar interface: a big On/ Off button, a list of locations underneath, and a handful of icons for tasks such as managing your account or tweaking a few settings. If you've used another VPN app you'll figure it out immediately and even if you're a total VPN newbie, it'll only take a minute or two.
One of the reasons the apps are so straightforward is they have almost no features. The Location menu is a simple list of countries with a search box, for instance: there's no server load information, no ping times, no Recent Locations list, no Sort option, no Favorites system, no 'right-click a Hola icon and choose a country' option, nothing else at all.
Sometimes Windows VPN apps hide useful features away in a Settings box, but Hola's options are relatively basic. There's the usual 'launch with Windows' and "automatically connect" settings; an App Kill Switch to close specific apps if the VPN unexpectedly drops, and (as we discussed above) some largely unnecessary encryption options, but that's about it. If you're hoping for split tunneling, "auto-connect on accessing Wi-Fi", ad blocking, DNS tweaks, or anything similar, then prepare for disappointment.
Simplicity can work if what you get works well, for instance, but that's not the case here. The app took an average of 15 seconds to connect, for instance; that would quickly wear down our patience, especially when ExpressVPN's Windows app took around one second on the same system.
Occasionally the app didn't connect at all, displaying a cryptic "there was an internal authentication error" message, along with what looked like a clickable "try again" link (although clicking this did nothing.) We found a "Fix connection" menu option that fixed these connection issues, which is better than nothing, although we're struggling to see why the app didn't automatically use that when its initial connection failed.
Overall, the apps are both far more basic and far less professional than most of the VPN competition. Even if you just want to connect to your nearest server and do nothing else at all, there are many far better and more reliable options elsewhere in the VPN world.
Hola Chrome extension
The simplest way to sample Hola is via its Chrome, Opera or Edge browser extensions. Hand over your email address to create a free account, and you can begin unblocking sites immediately.
The extension is very easy to use. Tap a shortcut to common destinations such as Netflix, or enter the domain you'd like to unblock, and Hola connects and takes you there immediately.
This worked well for us, and we managed to view exclusive Netflix content in the US, Australia, and Canada from our UK location.
The free version has some annoyances and limitations. It popped up alerts every 10 minutes, for instance. After 30 minutes, we also had to wait for a 60-second countdown. There's also a limit on your usage per day, although this doesn't appear to be fixed. Many reports say you can only use the service for an hour, but Hola doesn't give a figure, and we made it to around 75 minutes before the clock ran out.
Still, if you've a quick and easy task in mind—checking Twitter when it's blocked on your network, say—then Hola is one of the more reliable free ways to make that happen.
DNS leak and kill switch tests
A VPN must shield all your traffic from snoopers, and in part that means directing all your DNS queries (the requests which translate domains like techradar.com to IP addresses) through the VPN's encrypted tunnel.
We checked Hola for problems with DNSLeakTest.com, DNSLeak.com, IPLeak.net, and others, but none of them spotted any DNS, WebRTC or other leaks.
Hola's Windows app includes an application kill switch to close specified apps if it detects the connection has dropped. You could get Hola to close your browser if the VPN failed, for instance, to reduce the chance that your browsing might be unprotected.
Although this approach has some value, we prefer the full system kill switch you'll get with most VPNs. If Surfshark's connection drops, for instance, its kill switch automatically blocks all internet activity on your device, without you having to manually specify every possible process with a network connection (a very good idea, because there are way more than you think).
To test this, we added an app to the kill switch, connected to Hola, and then turned our router off and on to simulate a network failure. The app didn't react for more than a minute, then switched its display to show that the VPN was off. It didn't raise a notification to warn us, though, and the kill switch had no effect, either: our target app continued to run as normal.
We tried manually closing Hola's connection, instead. The app reconnected, but the lengthy connection time meant our traffic could be unprotected for several seconds.
We expect a decent VPN app to at least display a notification when it spots the disconnect, then tell us that it's redialling, and when the connection is established. Hola's Windows app just displayed its status as 'On' at all times, with no alerts or notifications to tell us when we were (or were not) protected. And again, despite the service reconnecting (so it must have known the VPN had dropped), the app kill switch had no effect.
While this doesn't prove the kill switch is entirely useless - maybe it activates in other situations that we didn't test - it's still a very poor performance overall. A simple notification if the connection drops would at least allow the user to stop what they were doing, if necessary, but the app couldn't even manage that.
Hola was able to unblock many popular streaming sites in our tests but you're limited to just an hour per day unless you upgrade to a paid plan (Image credit: Hola)
Netflix and streaming
Hola sells itself mostly on the ability to unblock top websites, especially Netflix and other streaming platforms.
We found Hola's free browser extension successfully unblocked Netflix libraries in the US, UK, Australia, Canada, and Japan.
Hola Premium works a little differently, so we ran some extra tests. It also allowed us to view exclusive Netflix content in the US, UK, Canada, and Japan, and with Australia on its second try (having to retry is a hassle, but as long as a service is unblocked at least once in three connections, we count it as a pass.) The app got us easy access to a couple of other top US platforms in Disney Plus and Amazon Prime Video. It worked with regional sites including Australia's 9Now and 10 Play, and the UK's BBC iPlayer, ITV, and Channel 4.
That's an excellent set of results, but some other services are just as effective. Private Internet Access also unblocked 100% of our test streaming platforms when we last checked, for instance, for a fraction of the cost of Hola Premium.
We replaced our normal speed tests for this review and streamed 4K video from popular streaming sites to determine Hola's performance (Image credit: Hola)
Performance
We measure the top speed of any VPN by running multiple top performance tests (SpeedTest.net, Cloudflare, Measurement Lab, and more) from a UK data center with a 1 Gbps internet connection.
Hola's download speeds averaged around 180 Mbps to 240 Mbps, more or less what we'd expect for an IKEv2 connection.
Providers who support WireGuard or similar protocols can be much faster. For example, NordVPN and Surfshark all reached over 950 Mbps in their most recent tests. But, realistically, Hola's performance is more than enough for browsing, streaming, and most other web tasks.
Support
If Hola doesn't work for you, there are a couple of ways to get some help and advice.
Hola's web-based Help Center is a searchable support site with articles on installation, troubleshooting, billing, and more.
There's a lot of information on offer. The Setup Guide area has sections for 11 platforms, for instance, many with step-by-step advice on how to get Hola running.
But there are also some significant problems. We couldn't find even a mention of Hola's Windows kill switch, for instance, or some of its other more advanced features. And although Google removed Hola from the Play Store long ago, Hola still hasn't removed its "Get Hola for Android" link. Clicking it now leads you to a 'we can't find that page' link; very unprofessional.
There's no live chat, but paying customers can contact Hola's support team via email (free users are stuck with the website, unfortunately).
We fired off a message explaining that our Windows app kill switch didn't work, we'd uninstalled and reinstalled with no change, and asked what to try next.
A reply arrived about 8 hours later. That's a reasonable response time, but the reply wasn't the best. Instead of simply accepting what we said or sounding apologetic, the agent began: "I have tested the app kill switch and it works as it should." Saying to a customer who has a problem, "Well it works for me," is never going to create the best impression.
Still, we were intrigued. we responded "How did you test the kill switch?" hoping to get help improving our own tests. But, for some reason, our agent didn't want to explain exactly what he had done, and four days and no reply later, we finally gave up.
Final verdict
Yes, Hola can unblock most websites, but at what cost? The free version requires you to share your IP address, bandwidth and browsing history with the company (and who knows else), while the paid edition charges 2-3 times as much as some top providers, yet still has more logging than almost anyone else. Run (don't work) to our Best VPN list and choose a provider who will care about your privacy, rather than trash it.
Sign up with a regular VPN and you'll probably expect access to a carefully managed network of high-powered dedicated servers, while support for the very latest encryption and protocols blocks all unauthorized access to your traffic.
Hola isn't like that at all.
The Israeli company describes its offering as a "community powered (Peer-to-Peer) VPN". You'll get to choose a destination country from a list of 41 options, but Hola routes your traffic through other Hola user's computers, rather than its own network.
The service is much more basic than other VPNs – there is no P2P support, no dedicated IPs, no port forwarding – but there are some possible benefits, especially if you're looking to unblock Netflix or other sites or platforms.
Conventional VPNs often struggle with unblocking, exactly because they route their traffic through relatively few servers. Having large numbers of users with the same data center IP addresses makes them easy to detect and block.
But with Hola, your traffic could be routed through any of thousands of ordinary devices in ordinary homes. From the website's point of view, your browsing looks no different to its other visitors, which means you're far less likely to get annoying "unavailable in your region"-type warnings.
One obvious concern here is that although you get to use the bandwidth of other Hola nodes, they can also use yours. This isn't just regular internet users looking to stream TV shows in other countries. Hola also makes money by selling some of your bandwidth to businesses, as a reliable way to access web data from around the world.
Plenty of people don't like this idea on principle. The approach has created some very bad Hola-related headlines in the past, and left the company with a horrible reputation for privacy.
From a practical point of view, though, Hola shouldn't have much impact on your system. The company points out that it only routes traffic through devices if they're completely idle and not running on battery power, and even then, Hola doesn't use more than 3MB data on mobile devices, 100MB on desktops.
There’s still scope for problems. If your system becomes the exit node for another Hola user who's hacking, sending spam or downloading something illegal, for instance, your IP address may be recorded as the offender.
Fortunately, if you like the concept of Hola, there's a simple way to avoid the risk: switch from a free plan to a paid option and you won't have to share bandwidth.
Hola collects quite a bit of data about its users online activity (Image credit: Hola)
Pricing
Hola is available in a free plan, but this has many issues. It allows others to use your bandwidth, displays regular popups while you're connected, and limits the usage you can make of the service each day.
Uncomfortable with that? Then we'd really recommend you sign up with a real VPN, but if for some reason you're keen on Hola, you can also upgrade to Hola Premium.
The service supports Windows, Mac, iOS and some Android devices, and can be set up to run on routers, gaming consoles, smart TVs and more. Hola Premium allows you to connect up to 10 of these devices simultaneously, and as you're a paying customer, no one else will be able to use your bandwidth.
Prices start high at $14.99 billed monthly, or an equivalent $7.69 on the annual plan. You could sign up with ExpressVPN, a vastly superior service which actually will protect your privacy, for a very similar price ($12.95 monthly, $8.32 on the annual plan.)
Hola's pricing is designed to push you to the three-year plan, though, which is far cheaper at $2.99 a month. That's good value, but again, you can get far better VPNs for much less.
The excellent Private Internet Access gives you three years plus three free months for $2.03 a month, for example. That translates to 39 months of coverage for $79, while Hola offers 36 months for $107.55.
The Hola Ultra plan allows connecting up to 20 devices, and adds support for Smart DNS and 4K streaming. Sounds reasonable, at least until you see the very high prices: $29.99 billed monthly, $19.99 on the annual plan, $7.99 over three years. Private Internet supports unlimited devices, also has smart DNS and should have no difficulty with 4K streaming, all from barely a quarter of the price.
If you do decide to sign up, Hola's payment options include credit card, PayPal, Google Pay and more.
Hola has a money-back guarantee, but beware, this only applies if you've never made a single Hola Premium connection, and you make your claim within 14 days of purchase. Most VPNs allow you to use the service as much as you like for a full 30 days to decide if the service is right for you.
Privacy and logging
In theory, signing up with a VPN can be a great way to shield your browsing from snoopers.
In practice, there's a problem. Sure, using a VPN prevents your ISP from tracking what you're doing, but it also gives your provider a perfect chance to do the same. That's why it's important to check that your chosen VPN doesn't log any of your online activities.
We took a look at Hola's Privacy Policy, and quickly realized this is as far away from a 'no log' VPN as it's possible to get.
When you use the service, for example, the policy says Hola might log your IP address, operating system, browser type, the web pages you visit, when you arrive, and how much time you spend on each one.
If this is a mobile device, Hola also makes a careful note of all your installed apps.
Hola says it doesn't 'rent or sell any Personal Information', but that's not as reassuring as it sounds. The company also says it may share Personal Information with 'subsidiaries' and 'affiliated companies.' Even if Hola doesn't rent or sell your data, that doesn't tell you what these other companies might be doing with it.
There's another potential catch. In data protection terms, "Personal Information" refers to items that identify an individual, so Hola is telling us that it won't sell user contact details. Your browsing history isn’t necessarily 'Personal Information', though, and there's nothing here that says Hola can't sell it, or "share" it with an "affiliated company" for some other purpose.
It gets worse (no, really.) Hola says it may also share your Personal Information and other data to comply with legal requests or to detect fraud or violations of its policies. So not only might the company hand your browsing history over if the authorities ask, but it also reserves the right to analyze it for potential 'violations.'
Still in any doubt? Compare the Chrome Store 'Privacy practices' page for NordVPN and Hola. The NordVPN page says it will not collect or use your data. Hola's says it collects personally identifiable information, financial and payment information, authentication information, personal communications, location, web history, and user activity.
Put it all together, and if you care at all about privacy, Hola is clearly not the service for you. Check out the best free VPNs for far more trustworthy providers who'll genuinely protect your privacy rather than compromise it.
Hola provides its users with a custom version of the Chromium browser (Image credit: Hola)
Security
Hola protects your web traffic using the IKEV2 protocol by default, and the Hola site says apps can also fall back to the older PPTP/L2TP protocols if IKEv2 won't connect.
This gets you AES-256 encryption with relatively basic SHA1 integrity checks. Hola's Windows app allowed us to customize encryption settings, so you can switch to SHA256 or SHA384, for instance. But the app also offers some very poor choices, including MD5 hashing and DES3 encryption, a near 50-year-old protocol which is so vulnerable to attack that NIST says it should no longer be used. (You don't have to select these, but there's always a chance someone might do so by accident, and we're struggling to see why they're on the list at all.)
Although Hola's default encryption settings are enough to, say, shield your web traffic on public Wi-Fi, they can't match the security you'll get with the top VPN competitions. Most providers use leading edge protocols such as OpenVPN or WireGuard, for instance. PPTP and L2TP are so insecure that the bulk of the industry dropped them long, long ago, and although IKEv2 isn't a bad option, it's also on the way out. (NordVPN began removing IKEv2 support in June 2023, for instance, as it doesn't offer the best security.)
Hola apps
Hola has apps for Windows, Mac, and iOS devices, but the Android situation is more uncertain. Hola has apps available on the Samsung Galaxy and Huawei stores, but not Google Play.
Confusingly, we noticed a 'Hola VPN Proxy Unblocker' app on Google Play, which uses an old Hola logo to add a little more legitimacy, but has nothing to do with the real Hola company. We would expect Hola to make more of an effort to detect bogus apps trying to cash in on its name, but in the meantime, download apps directly from the setup links on Hola's website, and if you're using Android, install the Chrome extension instead.
Hola's mobile and desktop apps (stripped-down versions of Chromium) have a plain but very familiar interface: a big On/ Off button, a list of locations underneath, and a handful of icons for tasks such as managing your account or tweaking a few settings. If you've used another VPN app you'll figure it out immediately and even if you're a total VPN newbie, it'll only take a minute or two.
One of the reasons the apps are so straightforward is they have almost no features. The Location menu is a simple list of countries with a search box, for instance: there's no server load information, no ping times, no Recent Locations list, no Sort option, no Favorites system, no 'right-click a Hola icon and choose a country' option, nothing else at all.
Sometimes Windows VPN apps hide useful features away in a Settings box, but Hola's options are relatively basic. There's the usual 'launch with Windows' and "automatically connect" settings; an App Kill Switch to close specific apps if the VPN unexpectedly drops, and (as we discussed above) some largely unnecessary encryption options, but that's about it. If you're hoping for split tunneling, "auto-connect on accessing Wi-Fi", ad blocking, DNS tweaks, or anything similar, then prepare for disappointment.
Simplicity can work if what you get works well, for instance, but that's not the case here. The app took an average of 15 seconds to connect, for instance; that would quickly wear down our patience, especially when ExpressVPN's Windows app took around one second on the same system.
Occasionally the app didn't connect at all, displaying a cryptic "there was an internal authentication error" message, along with what looked like a clickable "try again" link (although clicking this did nothing.) We found a "Fix connection" menu option that fixed these connection issues, which is better than nothing, although we're struggling to see why the app didn't automatically use that when its initial connection failed.
Overall, the apps are both far more basic and far less professional than most of the VPN competition. Even if you just want to connect to your nearest server and do nothing else at all, there are many far better and more reliable options elsewhere in the VPN world.
Hola Chrome extension
The simplest way to sample Hola is via its Chrome, Opera or Edge browser extensions. Hand over your email address to create a free account, and you can begin unblocking sites immediately.
The extension is very easy to use. Tap a shortcut to common destinations such as Netflix, or enter the domain you'd like to unblock, and Hola connects and takes you there immediately.
This worked well for us, and we managed to view exclusive Netflix content in the US, Australia, and Canada from our UK location.
The free version has some annoyances and limitations. It popped up alerts every 10 minutes, for instance. After 30 minutes, we also had to wait for a 60-second countdown. There's also a limit on your usage per day, although this doesn't appear to be fixed. Many reports say you can only use the service for an hour, but Hola doesn't give a figure, and we made it to around 75 minutes before the clock ran out.
Still, if you've a quick and easy task in mind—checking Twitter when it's blocked on your network, say—then Hola is one of the more reliable free ways to make that happen.
DNS leak and kill switch tests
A VPN must shield all your traffic from snoopers, and in part that means directing all your DNS queries (the requests which translate domains like techradar.com to IP addresses) through the VPN's encrypted tunnel.
We checked Hola for problems with DNSLeakTest.com, DNSLeak.com, IPLeak.net, and others, but none of them spotted any DNS, WebRTC or other leaks.
Hola's Windows app includes an application kill switch to close specified apps if it detects the connection has dropped. You could get Hola to close your browser if the VPN failed, for instance, to reduce the chance that your browsing might be unprotected.
Although this approach has some value, we prefer the full system kill switch you'll get with most VPNs. If Surfshark's connection drops, for instance, its kill switch automatically blocks all internet activity on your device, without you having to manually specify every possible process with a network connection (a very good idea, because there are way more than you think).
To test this, we added an app to the kill switch, connected to Hola, and then turned our router off and on to simulate a network failure. The app didn't react for more than a minute, then switched its display to show that the VPN was off. It didn't raise a notification to warn us, though, and the kill switch had no effect, either: our target app continued to run as normal.
We tried manually closing Hola's connection, instead. The app reconnected, but the lengthy connection time meant our traffic could be unprotected for several seconds.
We expect a decent VPN app to at least display a notification when it spots the disconnect, then tell us that it's redialling, and when the connection is established. Hola's Windows app just displayed its status as 'On' at all times, with no alerts or notifications to tell us when we were (or were not) protected. And again, despite the service reconnecting (so it must have known the VPN had dropped), the app kill switch had no effect.
While this doesn't prove the kill switch is entirely useless - maybe it activates in other situations that we didn't test - it's still a very poor performance overall. A simple notification if the connection drops would at least allow the user to stop what they were doing, if necessary, but the app couldn't even manage that.
Hola was able to unblock many popular streaming sites in our tests but you're limited to just an hour per day unless you upgrade to a paid plan (Image credit: Hola)
Netflix and streaming
Hola sells itself mostly on the ability to unblock top websites, especially Netflix and other streaming platforms.
We found Hola's free browser extension successfully unblocked Netflix libraries in the US, UK, Australia, Canada, and Japan.
Hola Premium works a little differently, so we ran some extra tests. It also allowed us to view exclusive Netflix content in the US, UK, Canada, and Japan, and with Australia on its second try (having to retry is a hassle, but as long as a service is unblocked at least once in three connections, we count it as a pass.) The app got us easy access to a couple of other top US platforms in Disney Plus and Amazon Prime Video. It worked with regional sites including Australia's 9Now and 10 Play, and the UK's BBC iPlayer, ITV, and Channel 4.
That's an excellent set of results, but some other services are just as effective. Private Internet Access also unblocked 100% of our test streaming platforms when we last checked, for instance, for a fraction of the cost of Hola Premium.
We replaced our normal speed tests for this review and streamed 4K video from popular streaming sites to determine Hola's performance (Image credit: Hola)
Performance
We measure the top speed of any VPN by running multiple top performance tests (SpeedTest.net, Cloudflare, Measurement Lab, and more) from a UK data center with a 1 Gbps internet connection.
Hola's download speeds averaged around 180 Mbps to 240 Mbps, more or less what we'd expect for an IKEv2 connection.
Providers who support WireGuard or similar protocols can be much faster. For example, NordVPN and Surfshark all reached over 950 Mbps in their most recent tests. But, realistically, Hola's performance is more than enough for browsing, streaming, and most other web tasks.
Support
If Hola doesn't work for you, there are a couple of ways to get some help and advice.
Hola's web-based Help Center is a searchable support site with articles on installation, troubleshooting, billing, and more.
There's a lot of information on offer. The Setup Guide area has sections for 11 platforms, for instance, many with step-by-step advice on how to get Hola running.
But there are also some significant problems. We couldn't find even a mention of Hola's Windows kill switch, for instance, or some of its other more advanced features. And although Google removed Hola from the Play Store long ago, Hola still hasn't removed its "Get Hola for Android" link. Clicking it now leads you to a 'we can't find that page' link; very unprofessional.
There's no live chat, but paying customers can contact Hola's support team via email (free users are stuck with the website, unfortunately).
We fired off a message explaining that our Windows app kill switch didn't work, we'd uninstalled and reinstalled with no change, and asked what to try next.
A reply arrived about 8 hours later. That's a reasonable response time, but the reply wasn't the best. Instead of simply accepting what we said or sounding apologetic, the agent began: "I have tested the app kill switch and it works as it should." Saying to a customer who has a problem, "Well it works for me," is never going to create the best impression.
Still, we were intrigued. we responded "How did you test the kill switch?" hoping to get help improving our own tests. But, for some reason, our agent didn't want to explain exactly what he had done, and four days and no reply later, we finally gave up.
Final verdict
Yes, Hola can unblock most websites, but at what cost? The free version requires you to share your IP address, bandwidth and browsing history with the company (and who knows else), while the paid edition charges 2-3 times as much as some top providers, yet still has more logging than almost anyone else. Run (don't work) to our Best VPN list and choose a provider who will care about your privacy, rather than trash it.
RusVPN is no longer trading under that name and has since rebranded to Planet VPN. This review was accurate at the time of review, but no longer applies to the rebranded service.
RusVPN ('Reliable. Unlimited. Secure') is a small VPN which might look a little ordinary at first glance, but according to the website, performs better than you'd expect in several areas.
The network has a relatively small 338 servers, for instance, but they're well distributed across 37 countries.
There's much better news on the app front, with custom software for Windows, Mac, Android and iOS, Chrome and Firefox browser extensions, direct support for Linux and routers, and OpenVPN compatibility to cover you everywhere else.
Unlike many competitors, RusVPN doesn't just make vague promises about its website unblocking abilities, and instead lists a host of sites where it claims to work: Netflix, Spotify, Facebook, BBC iPlayer, YouTube, Twitter, Wikipedia, Google, Amazon Instant Video, HBO GO, CBC, NBC, LinkedIn, VKontakte, Instagram, Reddit, and more.
Prices are fair, and range from $9.99 billed monthly to $4.99 over one year, $2.99 over three. You can find cheaper deals around - Surfshark's two-year plan is just $1.99 a month - but generally RusVPN looks like good value to us.
Payments are accepted via card, PayPal, Bitcoin and more. There's no general trial, but you do get the usual 7 days to try out the mobile apps. In theory you're also protected by a 30-day money-back guarantee, the small print reveals this is almost worthless, as you won't qualify if you've transferred more than a tiny 500MB of data.
Privacy and logging
RusVPN's logging policy page states emphatically that 'We DO NOT Keep Any Logs of VPN Usage', going to explain:
'RusVPN is based outside 5-eye, 9-eye and 14-eye country list and have no obligation to store user activity logs, connection timestamps, IP-addresses or any other connection data. When you use RusVPN you can be sure that your privacy is 100% protected.'
Well, okay, although having 'no obligation' to log activity isn't an indicator that you're not doing it.
The privacy policy has a little more information in the following paragraph:
'We run a non-permanent connection log to solve technical problems including random name generation and internal IP address assignment (private IP address) which are reliably removed every few hours. We strictly and purposefully do not write down any information to mitigate our legal liability. We do not monitor the activity of your browser and do not record any records. It is simply impossible with our internal interface. All data about the use of the service is anonymous and is not tied to your real, public IP address.'
While this seems to contain some good news (any logs are regularly detailed, actions can't be tied to your real address), it's lacking in technical detail with some odd elements ('we don't write anything down'?), and doesn't leave us feeling we completely understand how RusVPN really works. That might be a translation issue, but whatever the cause, we're like more clarity in RusVPN's descriptions.
The company could also reassure potential customers by following ExpressVPN, NordVPN and others in putting its systems through an independent security or privacy audit, but there's no sign of that happening just yet. Until then, we just have to trust that RusVPN is living up to its promises.
Setup
Setting up a RusVPN account proved trickier than we expected. We paid via PayPal, an email receipt arrived immediately, but no 'welcome' email with details of our account. There was no 'resend confirmation email' button, so we waited several hours, but nothing happened.
RusVPN doesn't have live chat, but we sent a message via a web form asking what was happening. Hours went by without a response. We sent an email, still no response into the next day. RusVPN doesn't send an automatic 'thanks, we'll reply soon' acknowledgement to messages, either, so we couldn't even be sure that our questions had been received.
We tried again, this time paying using an existing account and were able to get access immediately.
Maybe this wasn't entirely RusVPN's fault; maybe there was some temporary email or other issue which prevented it responding to our queries. There's no way we can know for sure.
It certainly is RusVPN's fault that it has no option to resend a confirmation email, though, and that it doesn't offer live chat support, and that its email and web form support system doesn't send any automated reply to reassure customers that their messages have been received.
RusVPN offers native clients for Windows, macOS, Linux, Android and iOS (Image credit: RusVPN)
Apps
Once we'd finally got a working account, the RusVPN website redirected us to a download page with links for the Windows, Mac, Linux, Android and iOS apps, along with the Chrome and Firefox extensions.
Windows Defender warned that RusVPN's installer was 'unrecognized', and asked us to confirm we wanted to launch it (Image credit: Microsoft)
We grabbed the Windows build, but were surprised to find Microsoft Defender SmartScreen stepping in to block RusVPN's installer when we launched it, warning that it was an 'unrecognized app.' That doesn't mean it's harmful, SmartScreen just hasn't seen it very often, although users might be less likely to see these warnings if RusVPN digitally signed its installers, like almost everyone else.
RusVPN's Windows client features a simple user interface that is similar to other VPN apps (Image credit: RusVPN)
The Windows client interface has a simple interface, and works much the same as other VPN apps. Your current location and IP address are clearly displayed, alternative locations are available on a list and you can connect with a click.
RusVPN has 338 servers distributed across 37 countries (Image credit: RusVPN)
The client recommended Canada as our default server, maybe not the best choice for a user in the UK. This wasn't quite as bad as it seems - the Recommended list also included servers in the UK and Netherlands, but as it was sorted alphabetically, Canada came top - but we're still struggling to see why Canada was in our list at all.
RusVPN’s Windows client supports OpenVPN, L2TP and even the insecure PPTP, but you can’t choose your preference in the Settings box—the client decides. (Image credit: RusVPN)
Settings are even more basic than we saw in our last review, little more than an autostart option and the ability to enable or disable a kill switch.
The client appears to support OpenVPN, L2TP and PPTP protocols, but it doesn’t allow you to choose your preferred option — it makes that decision itself.
We don’t know how it figures this out, but there doesn’t seem to be much intelligence involved. During our review, it never selected the best protocol, OpenVPN, mostly going for L2TP (still a fair choice), but occasionally picking PPTP, such an outdated and insecure option that the best VPNs dropped it long ago.
That's not the end of the story. We checked the L2TP and PPTP settings, and found even these weren't as secure as they should be.
The first problem is the connection doesn't attempt to replace our existing DNS servers, ensuring we failed our DNS leak tests later.
RusVPN's Windows client doesn't just use the outdated PPTP protocol, it sets it up with encryption as only 'optional' (Image credit: RusVPN)
Even more seriously, our connections had encryption set as 'Optional' - the client should connect even if there's no encryption. That doesn't mean it'll ever happen (it depends on the server) but it's still a concern.
There are some easy ways around this. You could just set up the open source OpenVPN Connect to connect via OpenVPN, for instance, and never have to use PPTP at all. That's not something the average user is likely to think about, though, and 'we know our software is rubbish, but you can always use something else' isn't much of a RusVPN defense.
Moving away from our protocol problems, we ran a final quick test on how the client handled dropped VPN connections, and discovered more issues.
The kill switch was so effective that it even blocked RusVPN's own app (Image credit: RusVPN)
First, if the kill switch is off and the connection drops, the client updates its window but doesn't raise any desktop notification. If it's minimized or covered by another window, there's no way for you to know that your internet access is now unprotected.
Second, when the kill switch does kick in, it affects the client, too. We found our internet access was blocked, closed and restarted the client, and it prompted us to log in. Why? We don't know, but when we tried, it complained 'connection failed - check network connection.'
Our problems continued, as turning the kill switch off didn't restore our internet access, and neither did closing the client, or rebooting the system. We had to use system restore before we could get online again.
Although this was very bad news for us, we've no reason to believe it would ever happen to the vast majority of users, as they almost certainly won't be stress-testing the client by presenting it with some extreme situations.
Most VPN apps handle our tests much better, though, and this is yet another example of how the client isn't working as it should. We're left wondering what other problems might RusVPN have missed.
The Android app is quite similar to its Windows counterpart (Image credit: RusVPN)
Checking the Android app revealed no great surprises: the interface is much the same and there are no extra settings. There's a small bonus in that Android's system kill switch shouldn't disable your device in the same way the Windows client trashed ours, though, and the app is likely to be safer and more reliable than its desktop cousin.
Performance
RusVPN was slow in connecting from our test Windows system, often taking more than 20 seconds to establish the tunnel. The Android app was faster at around 10 seconds, but top VPNs are usually quicker still (some get online within 2-5 seconds.)
Given RusVPN's poor performance so far, we weren't expecting much from our unblocking tests, despite its claims to unblock just about every platform around. But then we tried the service with a few sites, and although it failed to unblock BBC iPlayer, RusVPN successfully unblocked US Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and even Disney+.
We use a number of different speed tests to determine the performance of each VPN we review (Image credit: Ookla)
Our performance checks began on a positive note, too, with UK speeds reaching 62-66Mbps on our 75Mbps test connection. The best of the competition might scrape 2-4Mbps more, but we're not about to complain.
US speeds hit a relatively poor 30-60Mps, but the exact results you'll see will vary depending on your location and preferred server. If you're interested, use the free trial with the mobile apps to see how the RusVPN performs for you.
Final verdict
RusVPN has many of the ingredients of a good VPN - loads of apps, easy to use, excellent website unblocking, fair price - but a host of fundamental issues and problems make it difficult to trust, at least right now.
AVG Antivirus is easily one of the most popular antivirus software platforms in the world that not only has an impressive collection of tools in its entirely free product (though there might be some gentle pushing to upgrade here) but stands shoulder-to-shoulder with other industry heavyweights when it comes to its paid tier.
Indeed, the free version of the software offers access to important features like virus detection, PC performance checks, a firewall and network guard, as well as expedient security updates.
That said, upgrading to a paid AVG product will get you a few very handy extras, such as protection against webcam snoopers, increased firewall capabilities, and a shield against fake e-commerce websites. Pay a tad more, and AVG will throw in its Secure VPN and TuneUp options (also available as separate purchases) for an ultimate antivirus, privacy, and performance experience.
(Image credit: AVG)
Pricing
As mentioned, in addition to its free tier, AVG has the Internet Security subscription, which unlocks some of the features unavailable in the free version, starting at $46.68 ($3.89/month) for the first year, renewing at $77.99, if you need it for just one PC, or at $59.88/year ($4.99/month), renewing at $99.99/year for up to 10 devices.
If you’re still on the fence about AVG Internet Security, you can give it a test drive during a 30-day free trial.
The Ultimate subscription, which also offers 10-device antivirus protection, includes Internet Security, AVG Secure VPN, AVG TuneUp computer performance booster, and anti-tracking protections. The pricing of AVG Ultimate starts at $79.99 for the first year ($6.67/month), after which it renews at $129.99/year.
Not happy with your purchase? No worries, there’s a 30-day money-back guarantee there to help you.
(Image credit: AVG)
Antivirus
In the Basic protection settings, you can the level of sensitivity for the real-time core defense against malware (low, medium, or high), decide what the app should do with malware or potentially unwanted programs (resolve automatically or ask), disable or enable CyberCapture (on by default), which refers to sending a file to AVG’s Threat Labs for deeper analysis (automatically or with permission), or turn on scanning for tools that can be used for accessing controlling, or potentially harming computers (resolve automatically or ask).
You can also enable the Hardened Mode (off by default) to additionally lock down the security of your device, disable Anti-Rootkit Shield or Anti-Exploit Shield (both are on by default), as well as choose whether or not the platform should automatically generate a report file in a specific location on your device.
As for File Shield scans, you can choose to auto-run items when removable media is attached (not something you’ll often find in free antivirus), select which file types to scan (all or those with recommended extensions), decide if you want programs scanned when executing, files scanned when opening, or files scanned when writing.
The Web Shield options you can tinker with include HTTPS scanning, web traffic checkups for uncommon applications, QUIC/HTTP3 scanning, WebSocket protocol scanning, DNS/DoH scanning, protection against botnets, script scanning, and specific website blocking.
Meanwhile, in the Email Shield area, you can choose whether to scan inbound (POP3, IMAP4) or outbound (SMTP) emails, add a signature at the end of sent emails, or place a particular tag in the subject of a message containing a virus (for instance *** VIRUS ***, which is by default, or you can think of your own).
(Image credit: AVG)
Scans
Additionally, the Smart Scan options allow you to continue the Smart Scan automatically to the next scan if no issues are found, as well as schedule Smart Scan in terms of frequency, day of the week, and time of the day.
The Scan settings let you select desired options in terms of various supported scans (deep scan, file or folder scan, explorer scan, USB/DVD scan, performance scan, or boot-time scan).
For example, you can opt to get notifications about potentially unwanted programs, set post-scan behavior, generate report files, select file types, archives, automatic actions, part of your PC to scan, removable media and rootkit options, and more.
(Image credit: AVG)
Ransomware Protection
Then, the Ransomware Protection portion of the settings lets you pick your preferred mode (smart or strict) and specify file types and folders to secure. There aren’t any additional options for the Behavior Shield, other than turning it off or on, which can be done for all the other various shields here.
(Image credit: AVG)
Network Inspector
The Network Inspector scans new networks each time your device connects to one, lets you decide if you want to do it automatically, whether you want to rescan known networks occasionally, test network devices for weak passwords, and lists all of the networks you’ve visited so you can adjust them individually.
(Image credit: AVG)
Enhanced Firewall
Finally, the Enhanced Firewall section enables you to turn on Internet Connection Sharing mode, decide how the Firewall should treat new apps (judge them automatically, block/allow all internet connections for new apps, or ask you to allow or prevent internet connections for new apps) and new networks (assess automatically, add notifications, or adhere to your Windows Firewall settings).
(Image credit: AVG)
Webcam protection
Switch up to the AVG Internet Security package, and you’re getting a handful of useful features, one of which has to be webcam protection, preventing applications from turning on your PC’s webcam without your permission. It is on by default, but you can choose to turn it off for 10 minutes, 1 hour, 5 hours, until you restart your device, or until you turn on this option again.
Additionally, you can turn off or on the option to shield your microphone at the same time, as well as select the level of protection you deem best, like allowing trusted apps access, blocking any app until you approve it, or blocking all apps and effectively disabling your camera and microphone.
(Image credit: AVG)
Sensitive Data Shield
Another cool feature exclusive to AVG’s paid Internet Security tier is the Sensitive Data Shield, which allows you to protect documents containing your banking information, passwords, IDs, social security numbers, payslips, and other sensitive data.
Click on the button to ‘Scan for sensitive documents’ and the tool will check your computer for any documents that might contain the above-mentioned information, and offer you the option to protect these, either all of them at the same time or only the selected ones.
The listed files have their basic information shown - file name, location, and type. There’s a handy little magnifying glass icon next to each file, allowing you to see the contents of the document before making your decision. Once you decide to secure any of the files on the list, they will become inaccessible to anyone but you.
Like the webcam protection option, this one can also be paused for a set period of time or until you want it back.
Fake Website Shield
AVG Internet Security also automatically turns on its Fake Website Shield to protect your personal information from being stolen by fake websites when browsing the World Wide Web. Again, this option can too be turned off for a certain period of time or until you decide to turn it back on.
This option also allows you to decide how you want it to treat trusted or untrusted networks - disable protection, enable smart routing (sending unprotected DNS traffic through AVG’s secured DNS), or direct all DNS traffic through AVG’s secured DNS servers.
Anti-hacking tools
Paid users are also getting access to anti-hacking tools that include Browser Defense which secures your browser-stored passwords and cookies containing your personal information (supports Chrome, Firefox, and Edge), and Remote Access Shield blocking unwanted remote connections to your device. Both can be turned off at your convenience.
You may select IP addresses you trust enough to connect to your device remotely, enable particular types of protection tools (RDP, Samba, brute-force, Remote Desktop exploits, malicious IP addresses), as well as block all connections except the ones from IP addresses of your choice.
(Image credit: AVG)
Other features
Other extras you may or may not want to play with include the Do Not Disturb Mode, deciding which apps can circumvent it, the Quarantine, where you can decide how much space on your disk it may use in MBs, as well as a File Shredder, which permanently deletes sensitive files once you’re done with them, and its settings let you decide if you want to show it in the Windows context menu or prioritize it at the expense of other apps, select the algorithm, and number of passes.
(Image credit: AV-Comparatives)
Performance
AVG Internet Security consistently receives the highest marks from independent antivirus testing labs, including AV-Test, which gave it a 6/6 score in terms of protection, performance, and usability, for the Q4 2024 testing period, granting it the ‘Top Product’ certification.
Meanwhile, in AV-Comparatives’ Real-World Protection Test for July-October 2024, AVG rated eighth in terms of false positives, with a score of 10 (16 files falsely identified), which is better than Norton’s 22 or Trend Micro’s 76, but worse off than Avira’s 7 or Kaspersky’s 1. That said, it scored an enviable 99.6% in protection, earning an Advanced+ award.
At the same time, AVG also scored a 99.92% online protection rate in the independent lab’s Malware Protection Test in September 2024, achieving 94.3% in offline detection rates, and 95.8% in online detection rate, with 4 false flags raised on perfectly legitimate files.
AV-Comparatives also measures the effect antivirus solutions have on users’ devices and has placed AVG in fifth place in this regard for the period of September 2024, giving it an impact score of 7.5, which is among the best in the industry. Better performers were McAfee, Kaspersky, ESET, and Avast, while it did better than Norton, Panda, Trend Micro, Avira, and some others.
(Image credit: AVG)
System impact
Smart Scan took mere seconds, Deep Scan took about 20 minutes to scan 460 GB of our test system, running faster each subsequent time. There was no noticeable impact on our test device’s performance as it did so, although it did create quite a few background processes in our Task Manager.
(Image credit: AVG)
Interface
Visit the General settings section, and you’ll uncover quite a few interesting and capable extras and customization features. For instance, you can select a desired interface language among the 26 supported options, check for app and virus updates, manage scan and shield exceptions and notifications.
The notification settings cover system tray icon, animated icon, sounds, pop-ups, incorrect date and time settings, external storage options - ask to scan, scan automatically, don’t ask; and other notification modes, like behaviors when the app detects an attack - smart mode (shows alerts and offers actions), limited mode (shows alerts but no suggested actions), and silent mode (blocks all alerts).
Furthermore, you can decide which apps you want to allow or block with the ransomware protection, sensitive data shield, webcam protection, and/or browser defense - manually or by selecting the apps from the list populated by the application itself.
A handy extra is that you can block specific devices from connecting to your computer, which means you can’t find or use those devices until you unblock them. Having said that, they can still connect to the network and other devices.
You can even protect AVG with a password in the app’s settings to prevent others from making any unwanted changes.
Other options in the General section include those related to personal privacy, allowing you to check off the ways in which you can contribute to making AVG better for you and everyone else. This includes sharing suspicious file samples with AVG, enabling app-usage data analysis in third-party tools, and sharing app-usage data with AVG so the company can offer you third-party products.
(Image credit: AVG)
Installation and support
AVG boasts an extremely lightweight installer and installation customization options that allow you to (de)select file shield, behavior shield, ransomware protection, the new password protection function (in Internet Security), web shield, email shield, remote access shield and fake website shield (both in Internet Security) enhanced firewall, browser cleanup, rescue disk, network inspector, file shredder, sensitive data shield and webcam shield (both Internet Security), cleanup and updates, as well as the Do Not Disturb Mode.
Don’t need much protection? Just click on the ‘minimal protection’ option and the installation customization will deselect everything except for the file, behavior, and web shield. The ‘recommended protection’ selects everything on offer.
AVG Secure Browser is automatically selected for installation and it’s a rather small print, so it’s easy to overlook it and you may inadvertently end up with a browser you didn’t want, and now it’s the default one for your system. It’s secure and great but it feels a bit sneaky just forcing it on you like this.
The installation itself took about 9 minutes on our testing device.
Final verdict
All things considered, AVG is a capable antivirus platform that performs great in its free tier and even better when you upgrade to the paid Internet Security version. That said, the price might be steep, and there are some false positive alerts, but high detection rates and customization options certainly make it worthwhile.
Emsisoft is a New Zealand-based cybersecurity company that has been providing antivirus solutions since 2003, and today has products covering everything from regular home users to demanding business types via its Enterprise Console.
The company’s baseline product is Anti-Malware Home, a capable offering that utilizes two engines (Bitdefender’s and Emsisoft’s own) to detect and fend off viruses, ransomware, ‘potentially unwanted programs,’ and more.
In terms of pricing, the package is available in a free version (for non-commercial use), which gets you on-demand scanning, but skips out on the real-time protection, and automatic updates (manual ones only).
Meanwhile, the commercial edition adds multiple real-time protection layers - anti-ransomware, behavior monitoring, blocking of phishing and other malicious URLs - along with automatic updates and remote management from a web-based console.
An exceptionally important and useful feature is its Emsisoft Browser Security, a lightweight extension for Chrome, Firefox, and Edge, which enables blocking access to malicious and phishing websites.
The console also displays your firewall status, and a Network Lock feature blocks all network access as easily as a single click.
In terms of premium pricing, Emsisoft Anti-Malware Home comes with a price tag of $39.95 for a one-computer, one-year license. If you need to add devices and extend your subscription, you can count on steep discounts. For instance, a three-computer, three-year license costs $143.98, or $16 per device per year.
And if you need protection for five Windows PCs for the duration of three years, then you’ll only need to pay $191.98 for it, which translates into a mere $12.80 per year for each device. There are also rather affordable layered endpoint protection options tailored to small to medium-sized organizations or full endpoint detection and response for medium to large-size organizations.
These look like fair prices to us. By comparison, the cybersecurity behemoth Bitdefender Antivirus Plus is a little cheaper at $24.99 for a one-computer, one-year license (at first, it brings it up to $49.99 upon renewal), for instance, and $110 for three computers and three years.
At the same time, introductory discounts might make Kaspersky Standard look cheap, but this isn’t really the case, as its five-computer, one-year license starts at $37.96, but ups it to $65.09 per year on renewal (that’s $13.02 per device a year). In other words, opting to protect five devices for three years would cost you $168.14 initially - on par with Emsisoft Anti-Malware Home.
If you’re interested, installing Emsisoft Anti-Malware Free gets you a trial of the entire package for the first 30 days, no credit card details required, and there’s also a 30-day money-back guarantee in place as an extra layer of buyer protection.
After handing over your email address, the Emsisoft Anti-Malware trial is ready to download and installs with surprising speed. The only thing that took a while for us was downloading it, as the progress bar got a bit slow at the 90% mark, but the rest of it went in a matter of seconds.
One of the reasons behind this speed could be the fact that Anti-Malware is exceptionally compact. We discovered that its Program Files folder took about 750MB of disk space, but around 610MB of that was signatures, leaving a minimal code overhead.
Nonetheless, we browsed the files but couldn’t see any issues. There was no sign of the cluttered mess of executables we often witness with smaller providers: the files were all digitally signed, with only a few third-party components like OpenSSL and the Bitdefender engine, and they all appeared to be well-protected against an attack. This isn’t a package that malware can easily disable.
Upon installation, you can install Emsisoft Anti-Malware Browser Security extensions for Chrome, Firefox, and Edge, which are simple add-ons to detect malicious and phishing websites and block access to them. That said, they aren’t required for Anti-Malware to work, and the file and behavior monitoring layers should detect and block any threats you might download if you don’t have them installed.
Meanwhile, the add-ons are simpler and more lightweight than most similar tools and can be used for free without having to install Anti-Malware. You can check the Emsisoft blog for more on this, or download the Chrome version on the Chrome web store if you like it.
(Image credit: Emisoft)
Features
Emsisoft Anti-Malware has no significant bonus features, but somehow its interface feels a bit more cluttered than most full-strength suites.
Specifically, there are four colored tiles titled Protection, Scan & Clean, Logs, and Settings, alongside eight shortcut links, nine sidebar icons, assorted status indicators, and more. Clicking on any of the tiles displays further panels stuffed with options, and scrolling down reveals even more elements to explore.
However, all this doesn’t necessarily make the program difficult to use. If you’re not technically inclined, you can ignore most of the options, and just head to Scan & Clean > Quick Scan to run a basic malware check, or Logs to review what’s been going on recently.
The real value here, though, is for more experienced users who’ll appreciate the extreme configurability of Emsisoft Anti-Malware. For instance, you can set up custom scans, where you can define exactly what you want to check and tinker with the low-level technical details of how the scans check for it.
(Image credit: Emisoft)
An immensely flexible scanner enables running your scan type at a specific time or interval, during defined hours (such as every hour between 9 am and 5 pm on Mondays, Thursdays, and Fridays), or on a system event (when Windows starts or after plugging in a USB key).
And that’s only the beginning. The URL filter can be extended with your own rules or by importing your HOSTS file. You can precisely define when files are scanned, set up email notifications if malware is detected, and customize when and how the program runs updates.
On top of that, you can decide which program events generate notifications and control which user accounts are able to access Anti-Malware (great for preventing your kids from messing with the settings).
Now, we do appreciate this power, but the layers to the interface may sometimes make it a bit awkward to navigate. For instance, having a Logs panel on the front page might make it seem easy to get a look at exactly what happened during the last-but-one scan, but the reality is a little different.
Indeed, if you click on Logs, you’ll get a complicated event log of all the recent events, not just user actions. Scroll down to find the scan, and you’ll see items for both Scan Start and Scan Finish. Double-clicking Scan Finish displays a scrollable list of basic actions, without any of the results.
You might give up at this point, but if you scroll to the bottom of that list, you’ll see a ‘View the detailed Scan log’ which finally provides the information you were looking for. Once you’ve learned your way around, this isn’t difficult to do, but it doesn’t feel particularly natural or intuitive either.
(Image credit: Emisoft)
You probably won’t spend much time navigating the interface, and in regular real-world use, the program performs reasonably well. Quick Scans check running processes in around 20-30 seconds, and a more capable Malware Scan examines all the common infection points in about 15 minutes. Both scan types picked up all our sample threats.
(Image credit: Emisoft)
Meanwhile, the Chrome, Firefox, and Edge Emsisoft Browser Security extensions offer an as-simple-as-it-gets way to block malicious and phishing websites. They don’t try to do anything clever, like highlight dubious websites in your search results. They just block suspect URLs upon trying to access them, and allow adding them to a whitelist if a site is falsely flagged. And that’s about it.
(Image credit: Emisoft)
Overall, Emsisoft’s URL filtering is decent, with the program catching a reasonable 70% of our test URLs. On the other hand, the Chrome browser extension isn’t entirely reliable, repeatedly crashing when we visit a particular website. We aren’t certain as to why, and it shouldn’t put you off trying it out (it’s simple, free, and you don’t need Anti-Malware to use it).
An Emergency Kit Maker facilitates the creation of a portable Emsisoft setup that you can save to a USB key and use to disinfect other computers. This is probably as basic as a recovery setup can be - it’s just a couple of Windows executables - and so can’t begin to match the power of a bootable recovery environment. Still, if you do have a second PC that happens to become infected, you’ll probably be glad to have it.
Exclusions allow you to use wildcards or environment variables in addition to excluding files and folders from scanning or monitoring, Notifications allow you to tailor alerts about real-time detections, software updates, removable device connections, required computer restarts, recommended readings and news, Browser Security verifications, and the like.
You can also opt to have automatic updates in set intervals, as well as setting other details, with Advanced options covering the app launch on Windows startup, self-protection, captcha to authorize program shutdowns, Windows Explorer integration, Windows Security Center integration, Memory usage optimization, and more.
Finally, the web-based remote management of Emsisoft protection software allows you to, well, manage the security and protection of all your endpoints, clients, and sites (for business users), from one straightforward and easy-to-use web console. Here, you can see all the details, updates, scans, and alerts for your account, and device status, as well as the activities of the platform’s behavior blocker, File Guard, scanner, and web protection.
If you expect your antivirus to throw in a bundle of extras, then Emsisoft will leave you disappointed. There’s no password manager, secure deletion tool, system optimizer, or anything of the sort. It makes for a short feature list, but as this kind of bonus feature rarely competes with the best-of-breed freeware, we don’t think it’s much of a deal-breaker.
(Image credit: Emisoft)
Protection
Unfortunately, Emsisoft Anti-Malware isn’t covered by comparative tests from any of the major independent testing labs out there. It would be nice to see some analyzing it, as it would bring its reputation to the likes of, say, Bitdefender, Kaspersky, and others.
In other words, AV-Test hasn’t analyzed it, and the package vanished from AV-Comparatives Real-World Protection tests in 2019 (although, if you’re interested in the history, Emsisoft ranked in the bottom half of the list for most of the second half of 2018).
SE Labs hasn’t tested it much either, but it did report Emsisoft Business Security as having a total accuracy rating of 95% in its April-June 2022 report for Small Business Endpoint Security - better than Webroot SecureAnywhere Endpoint Protection, which had 93%.
In terms of the consumer product, Emsisoft Anti-Malware has performed well in VirusBulletin’s VB100 certification, which is about achieving a minimum standard more than comparing engines against one another, but it’s still not easy to win a spot here.
In fact, products need to detect at least 75% of the test samples and have a false detection rate of no more than 0.05%. VB100 test results appear every two months, and, at the time of writing, Emsisoft Anti-Malware has been certified in five tests out of five total.
(Image credit: VirusBulletin)
Specifically, Emsisoft Anti-Malware passed the most recent test with flying colors, earning a Grade A in detection, as it detected 99.39% of malware, with not a single false alarm - thus successfully meeting the strict VB100 test criteria. Going deeper, Emsisoft Anti-Malware only missed 13 cases out of 2,127 tested ones during on-demand scans.
Final verdict
All things considered, Emsisoft Anti-Malware is a capable package and its high level of configurability might appeal to experts. It doesn’t quite have the features, speed, or ease of use to justify buying it ahead of the big-name antivirus competition, but the free version could still be a decent second-option scanner.
We've also highlighted the best antivirus software in this roundup
When some people describe the internet, they say it’s a jungle out there. And that’s true - if it’s a jungle where every single creature is lined up and tooled up, ready to attack you the second you arrive. The internet is so full of malicious software that it’s not a matter of whether an unprotected PC will get infected with something serious; it’s a matter of how quickly it’ll happen.
Enter Comodo, whose free firewall is designed to make sure your PC doesn’t become a statistic. It blocks malicious software from getting onto your PC, and if there’s already malware on your PC it stops it from communicating with villains over the hills and far away.
Comodo Firewall offers safe web browsing and it works on the basis of what’s called Default Deny Protection with Default Allow Usability. In plain English, that means it assumes unknown software is guilty until proven innocent.
The firewall knows the details of over two million safe apps, so the likelihood of a false positive flagging a reputable app is very low.
For even more power, Comodo will often gently push you towards upgrading to its Internet Security package, which promises to deliver a complete antivirus suite for all your protection needs, plus some special features.
The basics include its Defense+ tech (a Host Intrusion Prevention System - HIPS) that protects critical system files and blocks malware before it installs, the automatic sandbox, which runs unknown files in an isolated environment where they can cause no damage, cloud-based antivirus, spyware scanning, online banking and shopping security and, of course, its firewall.
In terms of extras, this package throws in a $500 virus-free warranty, 50GB of cloud storage, on-the-go Wi-Fi protection, and unlimited live expert virus removal - all that for just $29.99 per year if you need coverage for one device or $39.99 per year for three devices (no increases upon renewals).
Supported devices include Windows, Mac, Android, iOS, and any FireTV device running Android 5 or above.
Accepted payment methods include credit and debit cards, as well as PayPal.
(Image credit: Comodo )
User experience
Like with many free (and sometimes even paid) apps, it’s a good idea to pay attention when you’re installing Comodo Free Firewall; if you don’t, you may discover a new browser or an extra service that you didn’t ask for. While this might be okay with some, others might not appreciate the sneaky installations so readily.
That said, the setup was quick and painless - just download the installation file from the website, run it, and follow the prompts. Before you begin, however, make sure to uncheck the option to download and install the COMODO Dragon Web Browser and/or Internet Security Essentials if you don’t want them. They can be found in the ‘Components’ tab at the top of the installation window.
Again, at the end of the installation process, you’ll again be asked to keep some extra options enabled, including changing your DNS provider to COMODO Secure DNS (improved security online, faster resolution of web pages), turning on the cloud-based behavior analysis of untrusted files, sending anonymous usage statistics to the company, and setting Yahoo! as your homepage, new tab, and default search engine on all supported browsers.
Once installed, Comodo Free Firewall is simple enough to use, if a little vocal - it tells you when files are okay as well as when they aren’t, but there’s a silent mode to turn off notifications - and the secure browsers are easy to access and use. The threats database lives in the cloud so you’re always using the most up-to-date version. That’s very important because new threats emerge daily.
The interface is pleasant and intuitive enough, considering it’s packed with plenty of features and options. Its simultaneous simplicity and exceptional configurability make it suitable for beginners who don’t want to bother themselves with deeper settings and advanced users who would appreciate them.
In this line, you can choose whether the app will show in the basic (beginner-friendly) or advanced (expert-supported) view. The former will only display your system’s security status and the options to manage networks, unlock applications, update the program, and run a virtual container. You’ll also see a Live Support button at the top.
Meanwhile, the latter will give you a whole host of deeper actions, such as access to advanced firewall settings, inbound/outbound connections, auto-containment, HIPS, VirusScope, and website filtering, as well as a view of network intrusions, blocked apps, contained apps, and unrecognized files. The basic view’s Live Support button is replaced by the Logs button, providing an in-depth view of all the security events related to the device.
The platform itself can also be pushy at times, especially if you were shrewd enough to stop the undercover installation of its browser and try to get you to install it later as you’re using its current (free) capabilities. There’s also the constantly present ‘Upgrade’ button at the bottom left of the interface taking you to the page where you can purchase the full Comodo Internet Security service.
(Image credit: Comodo)
Protection
Comodo Firewall keeps vigil over your system’s security in real time and allows you to scan your device on demand. Mind you, there’s only one type of scan, and it seems to be the quick kind that other cybersecurity suites have in addition to full and customized scan options. But considering this is ‘only’ a firewall solution, it’s more than enough.
(Image credit: Comodo)
The first scan took about five minutes to finish, and each subsequent scanning action was completed in an even shorter time - usually in less than a minute.
In terms of third-party antivirus testing labs, SE-Labs analyzed Comodo Antivirus in its April-June 2024 Home Endpoint Protection report, assigning it an AA score, as it reached 90% total accuracy and 2% score in terms of false positives.
(Image credit: SE Labs)
AV-Test last tested Comodo Internet Security Premium in August 2019, when it scored 6/6 in protection, 5.5/6 in performance, and 5.5/6 in usability, earning a ‘certified’ award, which is nothing to write home about as there were others among the competition that did much better.
Meanwhile, MRG Effitas tested Comodo’s VPN service in its Q4 2023 Android 360 Assessment Programme, in which it did poorly, but perhaps the fact that antivirus wasn’t its primary function was a part of the problem. However, the results weren’t much better when it came to Comodo Mobile Security Antivirus.
Its industry peer, AV-Comparatives hasn’t been interested in testing Comodo at all.
(Image credit: Comodo)
Features
Comodo Firewall offers plenty of features, even for free users. The app’s operations are divided into four main categories - general, firewall, containment, and advanced tasks. The general tasks involve scanning your device for viruses and spyware, checking for program updates, unblocking apps previously blocked by Comodo, and getting live support.
In terms of firewall tasks, there’s the option to choose the apps you want to allow to connect to the internet through a file picker, as well as the same option for blocking apps, a controller for the device’s network visibility, a network manager, a quick switch to stop/restore all network activity to and from the device, and a viewer of all apps connected to the internet.
The containment tasks are a bit upper-level, such as the virtual container for running apps, an option to create the storage space shared between virtual and real applications, an active processes viewer, and a Comodo killswitch and virtual desktop. The latter two weren’t installed with the Firewall app but were one click away.
Finally, advanced tasks are intended for expert users in the cybersecurity field, as they include a task manager, a viewer of security events, activity, and alerts, an option to create a bootable CD or USB flash drive to clean up heavily infected PCs, an endpoint cleaner in the form of Comodo Cleaning Essentials to deal with persistent infections, a quarantine viewer, and a feature that allows you to submit files for analysis to Comodo’s team.
Digging deeper into the app’s advanced settings, accessible from the gear icon at the top left corner of the window, you can get the full Comodo Firewall experience, starting from its appearance, which you can control by selecting one of the four themes in the app’s settings.
Furthermore, there’s a list of supported languages you can choose, alongside other options to fully customize your experience, such as allowing notifications, sounds, messages from the Comodo Message Center, information messages when tasks are minimized/sent to the background, a welcome screen, a desktop widget, as well as setting up a password.
You can also set the program update schedule and rules, and define logging options to manage the recording of critical events like caught malware, firewall actions, and the like. There’s also a section that lets you import, export, and switch configurations for the program.
Naturally, the app’s firewall options are the most detailed, facilitating the selection of the type of firewall (safe mode, training mode, block everything, and custom ruleset) for inbound and outbound traffic, Trustconnect alerts, and traffic animation effects.
You can also set rules for safe applications, alert frequency and timeout, and additional capabilities, including filtering IPv6 traffic and loopback traffic, blocking fragmented IP traffic, performing protocol analysis, and enabling anti-ARP spoofing.
Application Rules and Global Rules allow you to add, remove, and manage firewall application rules and global rules active on your computer, and add/remove/edit rulesets defined on the device. Network Zones can automatically detect private networks and let you manage network zones on your PC. Also, you can manage the defined portsets (HTTP, POP3/SMTP, privileged).
Users can also manage the Host Intrusion Protection System (HIPS), the component monitoring critical operating system activities to protect the PC against malware actions, its alerts and rules, protected objects, HIPS groups of objects, adaptive mode, and so on.
When it comes to containment settings, they cover shared spaces between contained and other applications, automatic startup for services installed in the container, detecting programs that require elevated privileges, like installers and updaters, the Virtual Desktop options, and auto-containment management.
You can also enable/disable file ratings via Cloud Lookup and control related settings (such as alerts, automated detections, and others), manage file groups (like executables, important files, temporary files, etc.) and file lists, see submitted files, and add/remove trusted vendors.
Further down the list of advanced settings is the Advanced Protection section, with additional options that include the VirusScope subsystem which dynamically analyzes the behavior of running processes and keeps a record of their activities, scan exclusions for skipping defined files and folders while performing the scan.
(Image credit: Comodo)
Then there’s Device Control which blocks devices of a client computer from accessing, such as USB drives, Bluetooth devices, printers, serial, and parallel ports, Script Analysis where you can manage the list of apps for which you would like to perform script analysis based on containment rules, and Miscellaneous options, including automatic shellcode injections, alerts for software trying to modify browser settings, and more.
Lastly, you can opt in or out of the Website Filtering feature to filter websites according to the user-defined rules and profiles (allowed vs. blocked sites, adding/removing/editing/moving rules, and the like).
Final verdict
All things considered, Comodo Firewall is a capable device protection system that, for the most part, is free to use, exceptionally easy to navigate but complex enough so those who wish to tinker with the more detailed settings and configurations can freely do so. Still, it doesn’t entirely replace a full antivirus suite, so combining it with Microsoft Defender or a similar solution might be the best course of action.
When some people describe the internet, they say it’s a jungle out there. And that’s true - if it’s a jungle where every single creature is lined up and tooled up, ready to attack you the second you arrive. The internet is so full of malicious software that it’s not a matter of whether an unprotected PC will get infected with something serious; it’s a matter of how quickly it’ll happen.
Enter Comodo, whose free firewall is designed to make sure your PC doesn’t become a statistic. It blocks malicious software from getting onto your PC, and if there’s already malware on your PC it stops it from communicating with villains over the hills and far away.
Comodo Firewall offers safe web browsing and it works on the basis of what’s called Default Deny Protection with Default Allow Usability. In plain English, that means it assumes unknown software is guilty until proven innocent.
The firewall knows the details of over two million safe apps, so the likelihood of a false positive flagging a reputable app is very low.
For even more power, Comodo will often gently push you towards upgrading to its Internet Security package, which promises to deliver a complete antivirus suite for all your protection needs, plus some special features.
The basics include its Defense+ tech (a Host Intrusion Prevention System - HIPS) that protects critical system files and blocks malware before it installs, the automatic sandbox, which runs unknown files in an isolated environment where they can cause no damage, cloud-based antivirus, spyware scanning, online banking and shopping security and, of course, its firewall.
In terms of extras, this package throws in a $500 virus-free warranty, 50GB of cloud storage, on-the-go Wi-Fi protection, and unlimited live expert virus removal - all that for just $29.99 per year if you need coverage for one device or $39.99 per year for three devices (no increases upon renewals).
Supported devices include Windows, Mac, Android, iOS, and any FireTV device running Android 5 or above.
Accepted payment methods include credit and debit cards, as well as PayPal.
(Image credit: Comodo )
User experience
Like with many free (and sometimes even paid) apps, it’s a good idea to pay attention when you’re installing Comodo Free Firewall; if you don’t, you may discover a new browser or an extra service that you didn’t ask for. While this might be okay with some, others might not appreciate the sneaky installations so readily.
That said, the setup was quick and painless - just download the installation file from the website, run it, and follow the prompts. Before you begin, however, make sure to uncheck the option to download and install the COMODO Dragon Web Browser and/or Internet Security Essentials if you don’t want them. They can be found in the ‘Components’ tab at the top of the installation window.
Again, at the end of the installation process, you’ll again be asked to keep some extra options enabled, including changing your DNS provider to COMODO Secure DNS (improved security online, faster resolution of web pages), turning on the cloud-based behavior analysis of untrusted files, sending anonymous usage statistics to the company, and setting Yahoo! as your homepage, new tab, and default search engine on all supported browsers.
Once installed, Comodo Free Firewall is simple enough to use, if a little vocal - it tells you when files are okay as well as when they aren’t, but there’s a silent mode to turn off notifications - and the secure browsers are easy to access and use. The threats database lives in the cloud so you’re always using the most up-to-date version. That’s very important because new threats emerge daily.
The interface is pleasant and intuitive enough, considering it’s packed with plenty of features and options. Its simultaneous simplicity and exceptional configurability make it suitable for beginners who don’t want to bother themselves with deeper settings and advanced users who would appreciate them.
In this line, you can choose whether the app will show in the basic (beginner-friendly) or advanced (expert-supported) view. The former will only display your system’s security status and the options to manage networks, unlock applications, update the program, and run a virtual container. You’ll also see a Live Support button at the top.
Meanwhile, the latter will give you a whole host of deeper actions, such as access to advanced firewall settings, inbound/outbound connections, auto-containment, HIPS, VirusScope, and website filtering, as well as a view of network intrusions, blocked apps, contained apps, and unrecognized files. The basic view’s Live Support button is replaced by the Logs button, providing an in-depth view of all the security events related to the device.
The platform itself can also be pushy at times, especially if you were shrewd enough to stop the undercover installation of its browser and try to get you to install it later as you’re using its current (free) capabilities. There’s also the constantly present ‘Upgrade’ button at the bottom left of the interface taking you to the page where you can purchase the full Comodo Internet Security service.
(Image credit: Comodo)
Protection
Comodo Firewall keeps vigil over your system’s security in real time and allows you to scan your device on demand. Mind you, there’s only one type of scan, and it seems to be the quick kind that other cybersecurity suites have in addition to full and customized scan options. But considering this is ‘only’ a firewall solution, it’s more than enough.
(Image credit: Comodo)
The first scan took about five minutes to finish, and each subsequent scanning action was completed in an even shorter time - usually in less than a minute.
In terms of third-party antivirus testing labs, SE-Labs analyzed Comodo Antivirus in its April-June 2024 Home Endpoint Protection report, assigning it an AA score, as it reached 90% total accuracy and 2% score in terms of false positives.
(Image credit: SE Labs)
AV-Test last tested Comodo Internet Security Premium in August 2019, when it scored 6/6 in protection, 5.5/6 in performance, and 5.5/6 in usability, earning a ‘certified’ award, which is nothing to write home about as there were others among the competition that did much better.
Meanwhile, MRG Effitas tested Comodo’s VPN service in its Q4 2023 Android 360 Assessment Programme, in which it did poorly, but perhaps the fact that antivirus wasn’t its primary function was a part of the problem. However, the results weren’t much better when it came to Comodo Mobile Security Antivirus.
Its industry peer, AV-Comparatives hasn’t been interested in testing Comodo at all.
(Image credit: Comodo)
Features
Comodo Firewall offers plenty of features, even for free users. The app’s operations are divided into four main categories - general, firewall, containment, and advanced tasks. The general tasks involve scanning your device for viruses and spyware, checking for program updates, unblocking apps previously blocked by Comodo, and getting live support.
In terms of firewall tasks, there’s the option to choose the apps you want to allow to connect to the internet through a file picker, as well as the same option for blocking apps, a controller for the device’s network visibility, a network manager, a quick switch to stop/restore all network activity to and from the device, and a viewer of all apps connected to the internet.
The containment tasks are a bit upper-level, such as the virtual container for running apps, an option to create the storage space shared between virtual and real applications, an active processes viewer, and a Comodo killswitch and virtual desktop. The latter two weren’t installed with the Firewall app but were one click away.
Finally, advanced tasks are intended for expert users in the cybersecurity field, as they include a task manager, a viewer of security events, activity, and alerts, an option to create a bootable CD or USB flash drive to clean up heavily infected PCs, an endpoint cleaner in the form of Comodo Cleaning Essentials to deal with persistent infections, a quarantine viewer, and a feature that allows you to submit files for analysis to Comodo’s team.
Digging deeper into the app’s advanced settings, accessible from the gear icon at the top left corner of the window, you can get the full Comodo Firewall experience, starting from its appearance, which you can control by selecting one of the four themes in the app’s settings.
Furthermore, there’s a list of supported languages you can choose, alongside other options to fully customize your experience, such as allowing notifications, sounds, messages from the Comodo Message Center, information messages when tasks are minimized/sent to the background, a welcome screen, a desktop widget, as well as setting up a password.
You can also set the program update schedule and rules, and define logging options to manage the recording of critical events like caught malware, firewall actions, and the like. There’s also a section that lets you import, export, and switch configurations for the program.
Naturally, the app’s firewall options are the most detailed, facilitating the selection of the type of firewall (safe mode, training mode, block everything, and custom ruleset) for inbound and outbound traffic, Trustconnect alerts, and traffic animation effects.
You can also set rules for safe applications, alert frequency and timeout, and additional capabilities, including filtering IPv6 traffic and loopback traffic, blocking fragmented IP traffic, performing protocol analysis, and enabling anti-ARP spoofing.
Application Rules and Global Rules allow you to add, remove, and manage firewall application rules and global rules active on your computer, and add/remove/edit rulesets defined on the device. Network Zones can automatically detect private networks and let you manage network zones on your PC. Also, you can manage the defined portsets (HTTP, POP3/SMTP, privileged).
Users can also manage the Host Intrusion Protection System (HIPS), the component monitoring critical operating system activities to protect the PC against malware actions, its alerts and rules, protected objects, HIPS groups of objects, adaptive mode, and so on.
When it comes to containment settings, they cover shared spaces between contained and other applications, automatic startup for services installed in the container, detecting programs that require elevated privileges, like installers and updaters, the Virtual Desktop options, and auto-containment management.
You can also enable/disable file ratings via Cloud Lookup and control related settings (such as alerts, automated detections, and others), manage file groups (like executables, important files, temporary files, etc.) and file lists, see submitted files, and add/remove trusted vendors.
Further down the list of advanced settings is the Advanced Protection section, with additional options that include the VirusScope subsystem which dynamically analyzes the behavior of running processes and keeps a record of their activities, scan exclusions for skipping defined files and folders while performing the scan.
(Image credit: Comodo)
Then there’s Device Control which blocks devices of a client computer from accessing, such as USB drives, Bluetooth devices, printers, serial, and parallel ports, Script Analysis where you can manage the list of apps for which you would like to perform script analysis based on containment rules, and Miscellaneous options, including automatic shellcode injections, alerts for software trying to modify browser settings, and more.
Lastly, you can opt in or out of the Website Filtering feature to filter websites according to the user-defined rules and profiles (allowed vs. blocked sites, adding/removing/editing/moving rules, and the like).
Final verdict
All things considered, Comodo Firewall is a capable device protection system that, for the most part, is free to use, exceptionally easy to navigate but complex enough so those who wish to tinker with the more detailed settings and configurations can freely do so. Still, it doesn’t entirely replace a full antivirus suite, so combining it with Microsoft Defender or a similar solution might be the best course of action.
